The Old Man and the Sea
Hemingway
"A man can be destroyed, but not defeated"
In 2002, an old cuban man died at home at the age of 104, and was reported by many major media outlets around the world, and he was Gregorio Fuentes, the prototype of Santiago in "The Old Man and the Sea".
In 1930, Fuentes encountered a storm while fishing, but he rescued Hemingway in distress, and the two formed a deep friendship, "The Old Man and the Sea" is based on Fuentes's personal experience.
"The Old Man and the Sea" is about an old Cuban fisherman who has not caught a fish for 84 consecutive days, and at 85 days, he decides to go out to sea to catch a big fish. As a result, a marlin longer than his boat was encountered. The old man fought with the big fish for two days and two nights, and finally subdued it. However, on the way back, he encountered a shark. In order to protect the big fish from being eaten by sharks, the old man began to fight with sharks again. However, when the old man returned from defeating the shark, the marlin was left with only a skeleton of the fish left over from being eaten by the shark.
More than half a century has passed, the shock caused by Hemingway's death has long since disappeared, and the great discussion about "the old man and the sea" seems to have subsided. Some say hemingway-esque tough guys are long overdue. In this era of advocating gender equality, this "tough guy spirit" should no longer be used to demand and flaunt men, women can be very strong, and men can also have their own weakness.
Human nature is mixed, and we can only try to see a little more of the "iceberg hidden deep under the sea" from reading again and again. In The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway creates an immortal heroic dream.
Life: Can be destroyed, but cannot be defeated
Maupassant once said: Life can't be as good as you think, but it can't be as bad as you think. I think that people's vulnerability and strength can exceed their imagination, sometimes they may be so fragile that a word can cause tears, or they may bite their teeth and walk a long way before the dawn comes.
In "The Old Man and the Sea", in order to catch this big fish, the old man Santiago paid for the unbearable pain of ordinary people. While he endured loneliness, he also had to endure the pain of being strangled by the fishing line and the pain of not being hungry for multiple eclipses. In the vast sea, he is helpless, and it is his mission as a fisherman to survive by catching this fish. Even though he wasn't as strong as he used to be, he still had to fight.
This is his struggle with the big fish, and it is also his struggle against life when he is no longer young and only has a dry old skin bag, but he is unwilling to accept defeat and race against life.
Throughout the ages, under the same sky and on the same land, there has never been a shortage of popular figures like the old man, who desperately want to persist and fight. Because man is born with an amazing endurance, where there are limits that science cannot explain and people cannot imagine.
Even if life is so heavy, Xu Fugui has never thought of giving up the idea of life, surviving, and fighting against fate, such a rough picture is not soft and beautiful, but this is the truest embodiment of life. Like Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea, even after a fight, there is nothing, but "one can be destroyed, but not defeated."
Loneliness: It is the eternal theme of human beings
In many articles analyzing "The Old Man and the Sea", it is often necessary to focus on the image of the "tough guy", but behind this "tough guy" like a hero, it is lonely.
Santiago is an old man who makes a living by the sea. He had no one to lean on, no relatives, no friends, just a little boy who occasionally came to talk to him. In the boundless sea, in all the long course of fishing, he was always alone. Robinson, who was drifting on the sea, still had "Friday" to accompany him, but Santiago could only face the sea alone, facing all kinds of difficulties and obstacles when fishing.
So, he always talks to himself. He spoke to the sea, he talked to the seabirds, he chatted with the big fish who fought against him—"Fish, I really love you, I respect you very much." "I swear to accompany you to the end, until I die."
Life is in the world, it is lonely. For the elderly, however, the loneliness of this isolation is even more pronounced. Like Santiago, when he was young, he was so powerful that he could win the championship by breaking his wrist and catching big fish longer than a boat many times.
At that time, the wife was still there, and the two accompanied each other and loved each other. But in his later years, when his strength was diminished, his body was weak, and he was alone, only the ocean and countless lonely days accompanied him.
After many years, re-reading "The Old Man and the Sea" is no longer just how the old man bravely fights with big fish and sharks, but after washing away the lead, he has a deeper understanding of life. It is the precipitation of the old man Santiago's life, and it is also the interpretation of loneliness and the relationship between man and nature after the changes of the years.
How to face the unavoidable loneliness? As Márquez said, the secret to living a safe life is to make a decent agreement with loneliness. Accept loneliness and face it bravely. Santiago did not choose to spend the rest of his life bored, he chose to accompany all the hardships of the sea to the end, even in old age, he still wants to be a brave lion, the hero is always a hero, never defeated.
Wen | Jinghua
Figure | network
Editor| Jinghua